Canada regains first place in Reputation Institute’s most reputable countries

Reputation Institute’s Country RepTrak® uncovers the most reputable countries based on level of development as well as quality of life and institutions

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS (June 29th, 2017) – After two years, Canada is back as the leader of the ranking index of the world’s most reputed countries. This information was released by Reputation Institute today during the presentation of the 2017 Country RepTrak® report, the world’s largest annual survey of country reputations.

The Reputation Institute’s Country RepTrak® report measures the reputation of the 55 countries with the highest Gross Domestic Product (GDP), based on the evaluation of 17 variables grouped into the following three dimensions: Effective Government, Advanced Economy and Appealing Environment. The study, which took place this March, consists of more than 39,000 ratings by G8 citizens.

Canada, with 82.8 RepTrak® Pulse points (the indicator that quantifies esteem, admiration and good image that a country evokes), leads the Country RepTrak® report with the same number of points as Switzerland (the difference is centesimal) and with three tenths more than Sweden, so technically we could call it a tie between the three countries in 2017. In the last six editions of the report, Canada has headed the ranking index on four occasions, surpassed only by Sweden last year and Switzerland in 2014.

The Top 10 countries in the 2017 Country RepTrak® are:

Canada

Switzerland

Sweden

Australia

New Zealand

Norway

Finland

Denmark

Netherlands

Ireland

In 2017, Greece’s reputation has seen the biggest improvement (+14.3%), followed by the United Arab Emirates (+13.6%), and Egypt (+10.7%). On the other hand, the United States (-8.1%), Russia (-6.4%), and Nigeria (-5.4%) show the most diminished reputations.

Australia is the country most valued by G8 citizens in the Appealing Environment dimension, with Japan as leader in Advanced Economy and Sweden in Effective Government.

“A country’s reputation has a direct impact on tourism, its exports and foreign investment”, said Fernando Prado, managing partner at Reputation Institute. “For example, when tourism improves by one Pulse point, it has the effect of an increase of 0.09 points on tourist arrivals.”

Other key findings of the 2017 Country RepTrak® survey include:

Donald Trump’s presidency is having serious consequences for the country’s reputation. The United States is not only experiencing the worst reputation loss in terms of percentage, but also in terms of ranking index positions, dropping from 28th in 2016, to 38th in 2017. The main setbacks for the reputation of the United States are concentrated in the variables “is run by an effective government” (-21.6%), “has adopted progressive social and economic policies” (-11.8%), “ethical country with high transparency and low corruption” (-11.0%), “is a responsible participant in the global community” (-9.2%), and “operates efficiently – it does not impose unnecessary taxes or waste resources” (-5.8%).

Brexit, the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union (EU), is taking its toll on the country’s reputation, which has sunk 5 places in the ranking index. The consequences of Brexit are mostly impacting supportive behaviours towards the country, with significant drops in “invest”, “work” and “buy”. In contrast, the United Kingdom’s internal reputation has noticeably improved by 7.5%.

Russia’s increasing international activity hasn’t won over G8 citizens, who have ranked the country lower in terms of reputation (-6.3%) after the recovery it achieved in the 2016 ranking index. Russia’s biggest losses in terms of reputation can be seen in the Effective Government dimension, in “ethical and transparent country” and “responsible participant in the global community”.

While US citizens’ perception of Mexico’s reputation continues its upward trend this year, Mexico’s perception of the United States’ reputation has plummeted. Trump’s belligerent discourse towards Mexico and his plan to build a wall along the border are generating intense ill -feeling towards the USA among Mexicans. At the same time these issues are creating much empathy among US citizens towards Mexico, shown in improvements in the ratings of key reputation attributes, such as “polite and trustworthy people” and supportive behaviours such as “visit” and “invest”.

Although some of its reputation indicators are very low, China’s reputation has been maintaining steady growth in recent years as it assumes its role as a key player on the world stage.

Greece’s reputation has maintained its positive growth trend, driven by the recovery of its economy as well as the absence of negative headlines in the world’s financial press. However, despite these advances, its recovery is still far from its position before the European Union bailout.

Other “peripheral countries”, such as Spain and Portugal, continue to improve their reputation and ascend the ranking index as their economies recover.

The numerous financial and political scandals faced by Brazil in 2016 have had barely any effect on its reputation, which almost remains stable on 2017’s ranking index (-1.3 Pulse points), but internal perception levels remain very worrying.

The initialization of the peace process has allowed Columbia’s reputation to recover, albeit very slowly and remaining at levels too low to reflect the country’s reality.

In parallel to the disintegration of the Chavez regime, Venezuela’s reputation has plummeted in Latin America (-36.5%), but not in the G8 countries (-1.7%). This may result from a lack of awareness of the country’s political situation.

The “Panama papers” crisis has borne little impact on the general reputation index of this country, but it has affected some of the emotional attributes for the international positioning of the country, such as “ethical and transparent” and “international respect”